F4U Corsair Book Review

Review

AJ Press has really outdone themselves. Rather than produce several soft-bound volumes about this very popular subject, they published all of it in a single, hard-cover book. This title is published in English and is printed on heavy glossy paper. Very nice!

The F4U's design was an attempt at marrying a powerful engine to an airframe that had relatively short landing gear for carrier operations. The only way to keep that huge prop from cutting into the deck while keeping the landing gear as short as possible was to mount the gear at the lowest point of a inverse gull-wing design. The aircraft was as rugged as it was fast.

Unfortunately, the early Corsairs tended to bounce on those short landing gear and visibility over the nose of an approaching carrier deck was virtually non-existent. These bugs would be worked out in later models of the Corsair, but the early Corsairs were destined for shore stations to turn Marine pilots into aces.

This title provides the reader with an in-depth developmental history of the aircraft, a detailed look at the colors and markings of US and allied Corsairs, followed by a nicely illustrated narrative of the operational history of the Corsair through two wars.

The title has numerous four-view diagrams in 1/48 scale to detail out the differences between Corsair variants. In addition, there are quite a few scrap drawings to provide a closer look at specific details of the aircraft. A nice selection of color profiles and wartime color photos round out the book's coverage.

This is an excellent book of the F4U and its variants. With everything under one cover, the book flows better than the individual multi-volume monographs. I'd like to see more from AJ Press in this format! When you factor in the hardcover binding, quality paper and printing, its 264 pages of content, and the very reasonable retail price, this book is a bargain! You can find this title and many of the other titles from AJ Press at the Air Connection website ( www.airconnection.on.ca).

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